COACH CALIPARI: “First of all, you’ve got to give UCLA credit and what they did. I mean, what Leaf did, he basically dominated the game. We had no one, unless I was going to go big lineup, which we haven’t done a whole lot, which shows me maybe we have to be prepared for that. But he killed us. Straight line drives, rebounds, making shots. We left him a couple times. He played. They also played to their strengths. Now, we turned them over a bunch, got a lot more shots than they did. But when we had our chance down seven, turnover, dunk, give up a three, all within 13 seconds. It’s all discipline.

“So for us, this wasn’t about offensively. We gave up 10 threes and I’m guessing six of them we left a shooter. All we talked about for two days is the one way they’re going to beat us is bouncing it, they’re not beating us shooting standing threes. I’m guessing six of them, maybe seven, plus the one right before half, which you have to give it to them, it was a heck of a shot. 

“This is a lesson for us. We didn’t have the energy. I had to call a timeout a minute into the game. I mean, just wasn’t the same team. How about this one? We had 16 assists. Why didn’t we pass it today? Because it was national television, it’s my time? We all look bad. There are great lessons out of this. I wish we would have come back and won. I would have liked to learn from that lesson a little bit more. But sometimes you need to get hit on the chin, especially at home.

“Steve (Alford) and the staff, they were ready. We missed a lot of lay-ups, one-footer stuff. But it all comes back to the same thing: we didn’t have discipline defensively, we just didn’t. We fouled on drives instead of giving them space. Now all of a sudden you put them to the foul line when they were having a tough time scoring.

“I have to give credit to them. To come into this building. It’s 12:30, 9:30 their time, to come in and do what they did to us, and they manhandled us, they physically manhandled us. You don’t see that very often, especially in this building.”

Q. Is it easier to go back and coach next practice after they’ve taken one on the chin?

COACH CALIPARI: “We’ll see. We’ll see. I mean, first of all, you’ve got to watch the tape and then you can’t be delusional. We let them out-battle us. We didn’t have the energy that they had. Now they’ve got to figure out why. I talked two days about, ‘You have to figure out what makes you go, because every game we play is someone’s Super Bowl, every game. May not be fair, but you’re here, and that’s how it is.’ We had some guys I don’t think were ready to start the game. They just weren’t. Or their team was more ready than our team.

“I liked the fact we didn’t give up, we kept fighting, all that. But you can’t make a run and then have a turnover, dunk, give up a three, five-point play in 12 seconds. You can’t do it. You can’t do it to your teammates. It was, again, a disciplined play. I’m not going to try anything fancy. We’re going to get a basket and be down five. That’s just a learning experience.”

Q. You talked about close games, see who can do it, who can’t. Did Malik show you something about that?

COACH CALIPARI: “Yeah, he did some things at the end that he’s not afraid to make baskets. But even then we broke down. Again, discipline. We were trying to do something, and a guy just said, ‘Well, I’m going to do this.’ That happened late. These were all lessons that if you’re going to win at the highest level, like playing UCLA or any other top-10 team, you can’t break off stuff. You’ve got to do what your job says you do, especially defensively. The fight for balls, not a whole lot you can do. I mean, they out-fought us. They came up with balls that normally we would get. Some of it our hands are on it, their hands are on it, they got it. They out-rebound us. I didn’t realize Wenyen had five offensive rebounds until the game ended. But I thought defensively, again, that position, he and Derek, you’ve got to be able to guard that guy. I mean, like I said, that was a problem for us. It was more than that. It’s everybody. It’s all of us, including me. Obviously, we weren’t as ready as they were. That comes back to me. I decided not to have a shootaround. I’m not making an excuse. That was my choice. Now that I see the result, I would have had a shootaround this morning. I just felt maybe they were mature enough to do this. I’m learning about this team.”

Q. After Lonzo Ball hit the three at the end of the first half to give them the lead, what happened when they went on that 11-2 run to start the second half?

COACH CALIPARI: “I’m going to have to watch all the tape. There’s a lot of possessions here. You’re asking me about five possessions. I can remember the two that bothered me the most: the throw-ahead for a lay-up, stolen dunk, the three back-to-back. But, again, if I remember right, we missed some shots. We missed a lay-up. You know, we missed a lot of one-foot shots. Again, was it the environment that they’re just not used to? Now guys have got to go back and just say, ‘Man, look, we know it doesn’t work this way.’ But they came after us. Look, I ran a play to end the half, and it ended up with Wenyen at the three. That was my mistake. As soon as I saw he was open, I said, ‘Why did I run that?’ Put him near the baseline, let him do something. They come down, make that three. We went from being up one to down four at halftime. That’s, again, me still learning about these guys, seeing what we can do.”

“Bam missed some dunks. Dunk the ball, why’re you laying it? He made his free throws. Other guys, Malik is not getting fouled enough. He’s trying to avoid the contact and flip balls. You’ve got to get fouls. He had no free throws. I told him at the half I wanted him to get to the line 10 times. Obviously we’re going to have to work on that and show him what that means. There are no flips at that point. You’re going to get fouled. I’m going in here to get fouled. Maybe I make an and-one, but I’m not shooting a step-back fade-away flip left-handed scoop, I’m not doing that. We have some work to do with this.”

Q. As you struggled a little bit defensively inside, did Isaac show you something?

COACH CALIPARI: “Isaac did all right today. I thought Isaac did all right. They didn’t hurt us in the pick-and-rolls as much as I thought they would, they hurt us just driving the ball. Then we come off. They made some tough shots. They’re a good team. They’re going to make tough shots. I know this, if you give them a catch-and-shoot three, they’re making that. We knew that going in. We gave them a bunch of those.”

Q. John, it appeared to me that perhaps your team may have been playing a little tentative in the second half, lacked the aggressiveness. Can you comment on that?

COACH CALIPARI: “Well, again, I’ll watch the tape. I just think we didn’t pass the ball like we had been. I mean, there were a bunch of opportunities for us to pass that we didn’t make. I told them after the game, ‘You can’t play that way, you all look bad.’ If we would have made extra passes, maybe had easier shots, maybe it would have been a little different. This is the first time on this stage with a team like this, with national television, starting four freshmen. Kind of showed at times. I think it was more defense than it was offense, to be honest. We got 80 shots, could have made a few more. But when you think about the shots we missed, I’m going to guess eight of them were at the rim and we missed them, like eight. When you look at we shot 80, it would have been a 50-percent shooting night if we just made the ones that were two feet.”

Q. Were the team illnesses this week any factor in this?

COACH CALIPARI: “No, no, no. Had nothing to do with anything. The factor in the game is they played better than us and they played harder than us. They had more fight than we had. They made some shots when we missed some shots. The reality of it is, we are a defensive team. We walked into this game thinking, ‘We’re just going to try to score.’ I had a bunch of guys play that way. That’s why they had what they had at halftime. It’s okay on an out-of-bounds play to give them a lay-up? They had two of those. What? That is where we got to go with this. Again, these are all lessons. That’s why you play a season. The great thing about college basketball is you’d like to learn from close wins, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way, you got to learn from a loss. That’s what we’ll try to do.”

On if the struggle to win the game came from offense or defense …

“It was definitely more defensive. We broke down a lot and they were just making open shots.” 

On if they were ready to play …

“It was an early game and most people aren’t morning people so this is something we have to get used to. We have to change our mindset from when we wake up to when we go to sleep.”  

On if UCLA was better than they anticipated …

“Every team is good to us. We took them for what they were and they are a good team.” 

On his thoughts on UCLA now …

“They are a fundamentally sound team. They’re older. They have guys who are more experienced while we are all young. They ball goes the way it goes.” 

On how he feels about Cal saying he needs to get to the free-throw line …

“I have to attack more and stop settling for a lot of jumpers. I have to attack in order to get to the line.” 

On if he was more upset with himself for not making shots or how they struggled defensively …

“I don’t care about missing shots. Defense. We know we are going to miss shots, but we will have more opportunities to score. You have to focus in on defense.” 

On in UCLA was better than he anticipated …

“No, I’ve seen them play before and I knew they were a great team. We can’t underestimate them and I think that’s what we did.”  

On why he thinks the defense struggled so badly today …

“We don’t know. We weren’t focused like we usually are. We have to be focused and ready to play day in and day out. If not, we’ll get beat just like this.” 

On if he agrees with the assumption UCLA wanting the win more …

“Yes, of course. We were not fighting. They’d hit us in the mouth and we wouldn’t hit back. We’ll watch film and learn from this.”   

 

On how the lead was spread out at the end of the first half and continued in the second half …

“It’s not really ideal. I mean, they kind of stepped back into NBA range threes. Bam (Adebayo) had good defense for the most part and after that they hit a lot of shots for the most part. So, they just shot very well. We were against a team who shot very well. So, it is what it is.” 

On it being about how they shoot or our defense…

“I think it was definitely defense without a doubt. If you give them open threes then they are going to knock them down. So, we had a lot of disappointing defense and some episodes. So, we just have to crack down on them I think and just constantly be more aware of that. Every possession matters. You have to have plays like that because when it does come down to March Madness or the SEC Tournament, those plays will cost you the game.”  

On him being older and learning from games like this …

“Yeah, I have learned so much each year. You come down and you mess up on defense. All the emotions at the end of the game will run you. You know you have to get better and run back.” 

On learning the essential lessons when winning my 30 or more points…

“No. We were winning games by 30 or 40. I mean, Michigan State, did they have players hurt that game or something? I have no idea. So, we went out and played really well against them. I think with this new game, I think people are mentally awake. Just from past games we played, I don’t want to say we got arrogant, but that we got complacent. I don’t know but we just kind of got behind.” 

Opening statement … 

“I can’t be more proud of our team obviously coming into here with this environment and playing a team like this. The respect I have for Cal and what he does and the team that he produces is phenomenal. For our guys to come in here and do the things that they did, they’re always learning lessons when you’re in November and early December. The games that you get to play are games that you get to learn a lot. We’ll take this back. It’s a huge win for us. Gives us a lot of momentum as we go into finals and Michigan next weekend. It’s good to see offense, defense, against one of the best teams in the country, but you probably won’t lose another game in here all year. For us to come in here and get a win, it’s huge for us. I couldn’t be more proud. We had a flow of the game. I thought we controlled things in the second half. We proved that if you can run with this team, you can run with anybody. We thought it would be a track meet. It was. We made shots, and if we can make shots in this environment against a team like this, it’s very encouraging. I thought at the start of the second half we had some key stops to get the lead above 10. Then we really settled in and had poise until about the last two minutes. That’s probably on us as coaches more that it is the guys. We haven’t been in a game like this where we’ve had to burn clock and get the ball in against pressure.  We’ll learn and be better the next time the next time. 

On stepping back and pinching yourself to acknowledge that you’re here coaching UCLA in Rupp Arena …

“Well, I pinch myself a lot just being at a place like this because it’s a very special place. We need a win like this with starting 8-0 and doing the things that we’ve done to date. I think not so much for any game. I saw a lot of people before the game. I just saw Rex (Chapman). I haven’t been in here in 33 years, so it’s been a while since I’ve been in here. We played well that night and I think lost by five or six points. So, to come back in here, it’s an incredible place to play with a lot of history and tradition. I’m happy for our guys because our guys get experience that. I didn’t think there was anything about them today that was a feeling out process. We talk about, ‘Don’t go in and jab around the ring to see if you belong. You’re 8-0. You’re playing well. Trust that you belong.’ That was the key thing that guys did from the tip. They make me not think about anything except enjoying coaching them. They’ve been a lot of fun to coach, and we’re looking forward to see what happens down the road. We got a chance to be pretty good.”

On their run at the beginning of the second half …

“It was a big key and we’ve been talking about it all year. The thing I’m most pleased with is that we came in here with a certain identity and we left here with the same identity – we just did it against the No. 1 team in the county. This was by far the best team that we’ve played. To know that we’ve established an identity of six guys in double figures again, that’s been our identity. We probably had too many turnovers tonight. That’s a lot more than what we normally have, but that’s a credit to Kentucky’s defense. I think our guys will learn from that. We had some silly turnovers that hurt us as well. We came in a high-scoring team that shared the ball and put six guys in double figures. To do that in this building against (Kentucky), that’s very encouraging. It’s about when you get in December before you get into conference play that identity gets cemented. You might think that’s what you can look like. You can hope that’s what you can look like. We have a pretty good identity built right now. Hopefully we can continue that.”

On Lonzo Ball’s performance …

“I thought he was terrific. He was playing against a very good player in (De’Aaron) Fox. That’s a great matchup. I thought he did a lot of good things in the first half and making the shot to end the first half really got him going into the second half. He just does what he does. He’ll tell you he had more turnovers than what he should’ve had tonight, but he ended up with 14 points, seven assists and six rebounds. The kid just knows how to win. I’ve watched him for the last two and a half years in the LA area and it didn’t matter who they played. We’ve seen it. The game before last he took one or two shots and we won by 40. He can beat you by taking a lot of shots or no shots. You can almost tell him to go get 15 rebounds and if that what it takes to win, he’ll do it. That’s what makes him special. He can beat you in a lot of different ways and he did that again tonight.” 

On the 3-point shot and mindset going into the second half … 

“I had the shot and I took it. Coach Alford says to never hesitate. I wasn’t hitting the whole game, but in the big moments I’m going to come through. I put it up and it went in. It was a good shot and a good way to go into halftime.” 

On the momentum built for UCLA …

“Once again, Coach said it was going to be a lot of runs. They were going to have runs and we were going to have runs, but at the end of the day whoever had the most runs was going to win. That’s just us. We’re going to find a way to win. That’s not just me, but my teammates too. We were just a good collective unit out there, and we got the job done.”

On the mindset coming into the game …

“Our mindset was just eliminate transition and keeping them at half-court. I think we did a good job at that. We went under a lot of streams and tested a lot of shots, and I think we just stuck to the game plan coach prepared for us and we executed.”